Archive

Review: Frances Hodgkins in 1913

Posted 11:58pm Sunday 12th October 2014 by Hannah Collier

The Dunedin Public Art Gallery Dunedin-born artist Frances Hodgkins (28 April 1869 – 13 May 1947) was a painter primarily of landscapes and still-lives. She is considered one of New Zealand's most prestigious and influential painters, although it is the work from her life in Europe that is Read more...

Custard and raspberry cream doughnuts

Posted 11:58pm Sunday 12th October 2014 by Sophie Edmonds

I thought I would go out with a bang for the last food column of the year, or at least a sizzle ... the sizzle of fried doughnuts! Doughnuts filled with custard and raspberries, no less. Boom. I regret to say I simultaneously wooed one boy and broke the heart of another with these very doughnuts. I Read more...

The Wolf Among Us

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Since the phenomenal runaway success of Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead from 2012, the gaming world has waited with bated breath to see what Telltale would produce next, and if they could repeat their past successes. The Wolf Among Us was that follow up game, and though it is not quite the Read more...

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by James Beck

Warning: The following critically acclaimed piece contains spoilers of the material in the book. Solace is Caterpillar. Societal image issues. Eating disorder bullshit. Three phrases that come to mind when I think of this book – a book that lures the eyes more than a hair-flicking Robert Read more...

Artist Profile: Luckless

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by Adrian Ng

Luckless is a self described “two-piece melodic, neurotic, melancholic indie rock band from Auckland.” Having just released their sophomore album, Critic's Adrian Ng catches up with songwriter Ivy Rossiter to talk about her group's new record. Was there a moment that made you want to do Read more...

Download of the week: Strange Harvest - Astronaut [NZ]

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by Adrian Ng

Strange Harvest are a local duo who make haunting, beautifully textured, electronic music. “Astronaut” is a chilling, down-tempo, pop song that features majestic sounding keyboards and wonderfully noisy guitar playing. The soundscape is wondrous and full of static and strange machine-like chugging. Read more...

New this week / Singles in review

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by Adrian Ng

Iceage - How Many “How Many” is the third single from Copenhagen-based band Iceage, who are right on the cusp of releasing their third album, Plowing Into The Field of Love. Where first single “The Lord's Favorite” had a twisted, country influence and second offering “Forever” seemed Read more...

Hook

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by CJ O'Connor

Classic Film Hook is basically a representation of my childhood; I watched it so many times I destroyed the VHS. Given my attachment to all things Peter Pan and disinclination to actually grow up, it’s probably a fair representation of my current psychological state as well. This was one of Read more...

The Life of David Gale

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by Tim Lindsay

Cult Film Given Sir Alan Parker’s high directorial pedigree (Mississippi Burning, Bugsy Malone, Pink Floyd – The Wall, among many others), a collaboration with Kevin Spacey (Gale) and Kate Winslet (Bitsey Bloom) is a mouth-watering proposition. However, this was a film universally panned Read more...

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by CJ O'Connor

Rating: B+ I like movies that don’t require a whole lot of cerebral activity, because all of my available neurons go toward passing my classes. However, TMNT was hilarious, in an “I can’t believe these are 21st century graphics” sort of way. Let’s start with the obvious, shall we? The Read more...

The Giver

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: B+ We are currently in the midst of the latest film fad, with a litany of studios trying to cash in on the success of The Hunger Games by also creating post-apocalyptic young adult movies. Though The Giver fits comfortably into this fad, it has a few advantages over the other members Read more...

Review: This World is your Oyster

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by Hannah Collier

Mint Gallery New Zealand-based collage artist Peter Lewis has been forming, re-forming, configuring and reconfiguring popular culture and its images since 1990. Peter‘s work has been featured on CD covers in New Zealand and in the United States, in the San Francisco-based art magazine Churn Read more...

Custard filled chocolate éclairs

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by Sophie Edmonds

I made mini chocolate éclairs the other day. Not wanting to brag or anything but they were amazing. Rather than filling them with whipped cream (which you, of course, can do) I filled them with delicious homemade custard. The lesson here is that if you cover your food with enough flowers and Read more...

Destiny

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: B The hype machine was put into high gear before the launch of Destiny. Although Bungie, the celebrated studio behind Halo, met these expectations in many ways, they also fell well short of them in many more. My biggest disappointment with Destiny has to be in its Read more...

High Fidelity

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Eithne Whitteker

Though perhaps better known for being the novelist behind the film About A Boy (starring Hugh Grant and a small, creepy-looking Nicholas Hoult), Nick Hornby had already written a modern classic before that film came out. Written in 1995, High Fidelity is a timeless exploration of the modern, Read more...

Ha the Unclear - Bacterium, look at your motor go

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Adrian Ng

Rating: A- After releasing a handful of lo-fi pop albums, EPs and singles under the moniker Brown, no one suspected that the Dunedin/Auckland quartet was gearing up for a drastic makeover. In December last year the group released “Apostate,” the first single from Bacterium, Look At Your Motor Read more...

Download of the week: Bandicoot - Happy Talking (NZ)

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Adrian Ng

Perhaps one of the most important releases in the history of alternative New Zealand music, this little EP from short-lived Auckland three-piece Bandicoot really put the spotlight on local DIY music and influenced a handful of musicians in the process. A four-track explosion of noisy, lo-fi, Read more...

New this week / Singles in review

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Adrian Ng

Lydia Ainsworth - Hologram Whilst a student of film scoring, Canadian artist Lydia Ainsworth was secretly working on songs for her upcoming debut, Right From Real. “Hologram” is the first single to drop from the intriguing new artist. “Hologram” is an ethereal, piano-based, pop Read more...

Mrs. Doubtfire

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Mandy Te

Classic Film Through the eyes of young me, Mrs Doubtfire was a hilarious film that made me cry with laughter. However, through the eyes of “adult” me, Mrs Doubtfire is actually a pretty heart-breaking film that just made me cry. Blame it on the cold, harsh realities that my sheltered, Read more...

Coco Avant Chanel

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by CJ O'Connor

Foreign Film I don't often watch foreign language films. It's not because they're hard to understand, because the ones I watch are usually in French or Spanish, and I speak both. It's because I find foreign films just ... odd. Especially French ones, and especially French ones that aren't Read more...